The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN; legally Trinity Broadcasting of Texas, Inc.) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN solicits donations on its website as cash, vehicles, or legacies.
TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its office park, Trinity Christian City,Kalfus, Marilyn. (March 3, 2017). "Trinity Broadcasting Network announced Friday that it has sold its landmark campus along the 405 on Bear Street in Costa Mesa". Orange County Register website Retrieved March 6, 2017. retaining its studios in nearby Tustin. Auxiliary studio facilities are located in Irving, Hendersonville, Gadsden, Decatur, Miami and Orlando, Tulsa and New York City. TBN has characterized itself as broadcasting programs hosted by a diverse group of ministries from Evangelical, traditional Protestant and Catholic denominations, non-profit charities, Messianic Jewish and other Christian media personalities. TBN also broadcasts original programming, faith-based films, and political opinion commentary from various distributors. The TBN corporation owns three broadcast networks in the United States—TBN, TBN Inspire, & Positiv—and operates four broadcast networks in the United States—TBN, TBN Inspire, Positiv and Enlace TBN—as well as a number of religious networks in other countries. Matt Crouch has been TBN's president and head of operations since 2015.Colby May, tbn.org, MATTHEW CROUCH NAMED CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE TRINITY BROADCASTING FAMILY OF NETWORKS, USA, September 8, 2015
History The Trinity Broadcasting Network was co-founded as the Trinity Broadcasting Systems in 1973 by Paul Crouch, an Assemblies of God minister, and his spouse Jan Crouch.Mark Ward Sr., The Electronic Church in the Digital Age: Cultural Impacts of Evangelical Mass Media [2 volumes]: Cultural Impacts of Evangelical Mass Media, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2015, page 206 TBN began its broadcasting activities by renting time on the independent station KBSA (now UniMás owned-and-operated station KFTR-DT) in Ontario, California. After that station was sold, he began buying two hours a day of programming time on KLXA-TV in Fontana, California, in early 1974. That station was put up for sale shortly afterward. Paul Crouch then placed a bid to buy the station for $1 million and raised $100,000 for a down payment. After many struggles, the Crouches managed to raise the down payment and took over the station outright, with the station becoming KTBN-TV in 1977 and its city of license being reassigned to TBN's original homebase, Santa Ana, in 1983.
Initially, the station ran Christian programs for about six hours a day, expanding its programming to 12 hours a day by 1975, and began selling time to other Christian organizations to supplement its local programming. The station eventually instituted a 24-hour schedule in 1978.
The fledgling network was so weak in its first days, that, according to Crouch in his autobiography, Hello World!, it almost went bankrupt after just two days on the air. TBN began national distribution through cable television providers in 1978. The ministry, which became known as the Trinity Broadcasting Network, gained national distribution via communications satellite in 1982. The network was a member of the National Religious Broadcasters association until 1990.
In 1977, the ministry purchased KPAZ-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, becoming its second television station property. During the 1980s and 1990s, TBN purchased additional independent television stations and signed on new stations around the United States; the purchase of the existing stations was done in order to gain cable carriage, due to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s must-carry rules. TBN's availability eventually expanded to 95% of American households by early 2005.
Broadcast outlets
TBN owns 35 full-power television stations serving larger metropolitan areas in the United States; at its peak, the network also owned 252 low-power television stations, which are mixed among stations serving medium-sized cities and rural translator stations in order to maximize the network's reach as much as is permissible. TBN also has several hundred affiliate stations throughout the United States, although just 61 of these are full-power UHF or VHF stations; the rest are low-powered stations, requiring a viewer to be within several miles of the transmitter to receive the signal. According to TVNewsCheck, TBN was the third largest over-the-air television station group in the country as of 2010, besting the station groups of CBS, Fox and NBC, but behind Ion Media Networks and Univision.
Many of TBN's stations are owned by the ministry outright, while others are owned through the subsidiary Community Educational Television, in order to own stations that TBN cannot acquire directly due to FCC ownership limits (which restrict companies from owning stations with a combined market reach of 39% of the United States), or are allocated for educational use and require additional programming to comply with that license purpose. TBN's programming is available by default via a national feed distributed to cable and satellite providers in markets without a local TBN station (this contrasts with the major commercial networks, which under FCC regulations, allow providers to import an owned-and-operated or affiliate station from a nearby market if no local over-the-air affiliate exists).
Worldwide, TBN's channels are broadcast on 70 satellites and over 18,000 television and cable affiliates. The TBN networks are also streamed live on the internet globally; the network also provides select archived shows on demand, through the website and select IPTV services.
During 2010, citing economic problems and a lack of donations, TBN closed down and sold many of its low-powered television repeaters. Of those, 17 were sold to another Christian television network, Daystar. On April 13, 2012, TBN sold 36 of its translators to Regal Media, a broadcasting group headed by George Cooney, the CEO of EUE/Screen Gems.
Another 151 translators were donated to the Minority Media and Television Council (MMTC), an organization designed to preserve equal opportunity and civil rights in the media; MMTC would later sell 78 of these translators to Luken Communications, parent company of the Retro Television Network. Four more translators in Dothan, Alabama; Kirksville, Missouri; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Jackson, Tennessee, were sold by MMTC to New Moon Communications, with the intent to convert them into NBC affiliates. However, in September 2012, New Moon put all four of these translators for sale.Per radiotvdeals.com Only Gray Television would purchase a transmitter in Dothan, which was converted into NBC affiliate WRGX-LD; the licenses in Ottumwa (KUMK-LP) and Jackson (WZMC-LP) would later be canceled (the NBC affiliate in Jackson, WNBJ-LD, operates using a different license). Its Jonesboro transmitter, KJNE-LP remained silent but with an active license; however, that market's ABC affiliate KAIT ended up obtaining the NBC affiliation instead, via a subchannel. KJNE-LP ended up becoming a translator station of Fox affiliate KJNB-LD. Another 44 of the licenses that were donated by TBN to the MMTC would be canceled on December 1, 2011, due to remaining silent for over a year.
On October 22, 2012, TBN acquired WRBJ-TV in Jackson, Mississippi from Roberts Broadcasting. Following FCC and bankruptcy court approval on January 17, 2013, TBN officially took over operational control of WRBJ on May 24, 2013, dropping all secular and CW network programming and converting it into a full-time satellite of TBN (the network was previously available in the Jackson area on WJKO-LP, which was later sold to Daystar).
On July 8, 2013, TBN announced an affiliation with the Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada religious station Miracle Channel; as part of the agreement, Miracle Channel added some of TBN's flagship programs, including Praise The Lord and Behind The Scenes, while TBN picked up programs shown on Miracle Channel, including services from the Springs Church (of which Miracle Channel CEO Leon Fontaine is a pastor), and The Leon Show on The Church Channel. Plans were also announced for Fontaine to become a regular host on Praise the Lord and four episodes per-year to originate from Canada, and for Miracle Channel and TBN co-produce a new weekly program.
In December 2023, TBN announced a distribution partnership with Phil McGraw's new venture Merit TV. TBN entered into a joint venture with McGraw hold a controlling equity stake in its parent company Merit Street Media, in exchange for distribution and access to production resources. In July 2025, Merit Street Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sued TBN, accusing the company of reneging on its commitments and "[abusing] its power as a controlling shareholder to advance its own interests and those of its CEO Matthew Crouch".
Digital television The signals of TBN's television stations are multiplexed into digital subchannels, most of which carry networks owned by TBN. Subchannel lineups vary, but as of January 2025, most stations use the one below. x.1: TBN – flagship network x.2: Merit TV – news discussion, talk shows, and true crime; joint venture with Phil McGraw x.3: TBN Inspire – programming similar to TBN's, but focused more on church services x.4: OnTV4U – paid programming x.5: Positiv – Christian and family-friendly films; network owned by TBN
A small number of stations broadcast TBN's Spanish-language Enlace network.
Programming
Overview TBN produces a variety of original Christian programs, such as gospel music concerts, live coverage of major Christian events, talk shows, health/fitness/nutrition programs with Christian family doctors, children's programs, contemporary Christian music videos, marriage enrichment series, holiday specials, Christian dramas, and full-length, family-oriented movies. In addition, the network airs local religious programming on each of their feeds.
The network's flagship program Praise is hosted by various regular and guest hosts, including TBN president Matt Crouch and his wife Laurie Crouch. It features interviews with celebrities, ministers, and laypeople discussing faith-based topics and their personal relationship with God; as well as musical performances from gospel and contemporary Christian artists. The program originated as Praise the Lord, was regularly hosted by TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch, and was originally two or three hours long. Until 2017, local versions of Praise the Lord were produced by TBN owned-and-operated stations and affiliates in order to fulfill public affairs content guidelines.
Children's programming TBN broadcasts VeggieTales under the "Smile" banner on Saturdays 810 a.m Eastern Time to fulfill E/I programming requirements as per the FCC's Children's Television Act. Programs previously featured as part of the lineup, and the defunct Smile spin-off network, ranged from contemporary programs (such as 3-2-1 Penguins!), classic series (such as Davey and Goliath), and TBN originals (such as iShine Knect and Mary Rice Hopkins & Puppets with a Heart).
Regularly scheduled shows Source:
Classic Billy Graham Crusades Changing Your Life with Gregory Dickow Changing Your World with Creflo A. Dollar Destined to Reign with Joseph Prince End of the Age with Irvin Baxter, Jr. Equip and Empower with Christine Caine Enjoying Everyday Life with Joyce Meyer Gospel Truth with Andrew Wommack Grace with Max Lucado Harvest with Greg Laurie Hour of Power In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley Joel Osteen Ministries John Hagee Today Kingdom Connection with Jentezen Franklin Leading the Way with Michael Youssef Life Today with James Robison Living Proof with Beth Moore Manna-Fest with Perry Stone The Potter's Touch with Bishop T. D. Jakes